Tenmangu Shrine, Tsudera

The Tenmangu Shrine in the village of Tsudera is located a little off the Kibi Bike Path, and is a fairly standard, small, local shrine, but it is my nature to not be able to pass by a Torii without going in to explore.

The honden backs right up to the Sanyo Expressway and the shrine was newly reconstructed using money from the construction project. The honden was decorated as this particular saturday in June was the annual matsuri.

In front of the honden were the offerings laid out for the kami, in this case Tenjin, the deified identity of Sugawara Michizane.

What was unusual, and something I don't remember seeing before is that flowers were used. Thats a Buddhist practise, and though officially "separated" by the government, buddhism and shinto evolved symbiotically and one can still find evidence of the mix. Also unusually this shrine, and others in the area, still had a buddhist bell.

Deep in the shadows of the interior of the honden peeking out from behind a screen was Sugawara himself.

Kibi Bike Path

The Kibi Bike Path is a 15k, well signed, and very popular bike and walking path that crosses part of the Kibi Plain in southern Okayama. Bicycles can be rented at either end of the path, JR Soja Station in the west, or JR Bizen Ichinomiya Station in the east. The bikes can be dropped off at either end.

For those unfortunate enough to live in or be visiting the large cities of Japan the path offers an easy way to experience a semi-rural environment. The rental bikes are gearless, but the path is almost completely flat.

Much of the route is through rice paddies and there are shrines and temples in abundance.

There are also a lot of "kofun", burial mounds, indicating the areas importance in prehistorical times. Some of the tombs are open for entry to see the stone coffins.

If one wants to venture a little off the path itself there is a lot more stuff to see.

I will be posting on various of tye sights during the next few weeks.

Fukuoka City Public Library

The Fukuoka City Public Library, opened in 1995, is another of the many pieces of modern architecture built on the reclaimed land known as the Momochi district.

It was designed by the Yamashita Sekkei Corporation.

As well as books the library is home to an archive of documents relating to the cities history, a film archive of Japanese and Asian films, with cinemas, and a UN depository.

The interior, like the exterior, is a mish-mash of styles and periods that looks a bit "twee" like a wedding chapel or expensive hotel.

Yamaguchi Go Steam Locomotive

One more manhole cover in Yuda Onsen features the white fox, this time in combination with one of the last steam trains in Japan, the Yamaguchi Go.

It stops in Yuda Onsen after starting from Shin Yamaguchi Station. It then runs to Tsuwano up in the mountains of Shimane. It runs most weekends and holidays between March and November.

The locomotive was built in 1936, and each of the carriages is fitted out in the style of different rail eras. The train is very popular so advance bookings are needed.

The train stops in Tsuwano for sebveral hours allowing passengers the chance to explore the town before heading back to Yamaguchi.

Soja Shrine

Part of the fascination for me in visiting shrines around Japan is to discover the differences and varieties. Architecture, layout, styles of shimenawa and statuary all vary by region, and the first thing I noticed about the larger shrines in southern Okayama is that they all have covered entranceways.

Soja shrine in Soja City gave its name to the town. "Soja" roughly translated means "all the kami shrines", and when the shrine was founded towards the end of the Heian Period the town changed its name from Hachiba to Soja.

Enshrined here are 324 kami!!!! Apparently the local bigwig found it rather tiresome to have to travel around and visit all the shrines in his jurisdiction every year so he gathered them all together in one place, hence the name Soja Shrine.

The two main kami enshrined here are Onamuchi, which is one of names Okuninushi goes by, and one of his wives, Suserihime, a daughter of Susano.

This area of Okayama, formerly the province of Bitchu, still continues a tradition of kagura, so in front of the main shrine were a lot of fine, wooden masks. The mask in the middle with the snot pouring from his nose is apparently Inasehagi!

A very partial list of some of the other 324 kami enshrined here is

Tenjin
Inari
Numata Sha
Ebisu
Gion Sha (Susano and family)
Ikegami
Kinoyama
Okami
Itsukushima
Kotohira (Konpira)
Various Aragami

The entrance to the shrine is right next to the Soja Local History Museum, not far from Soja Station. Soja is a good place to start or end a trip on the Kibi Bike Path.

Fudo Myo & Nio: Kezo-Ji

Kezo-Ji was an unexpected delight. It is a true mountaintop temple located just below a 450 meter high peak in the mountains between Matsue and Mihonoseki.

Getting there is by a very steep and very windy road. The only things on the road are a small abandoned love hotel and a small tea room. Its possible to drive right to the temple, but the best way is to stop and walk up a long flight of steps that passes through the Niomon (guardian gate)

The temple was founded in the 9th Century, but the Nio were donated by the Lord of Matsue when he built Matsue Castle 400 years ago.

The temple lies to the NE of Matsue and was chosen to offer protection from this direction, in the same way that Enryaku-Ji protects Kyoto.

A little further along the mountain trail and one comes to one of the largest Fudo Myo-o statues in Japan.

About 8 meters high, the statue was carved out of a natural rock outcropping about 150 years ago.

Vacation 2010 Day 8: Bamberg

Bamberg is a wonderful example of a Bavarian medieval town that escaped the bombings of the war, so its no surprise that the whole of the old town is a World Heritage Site.

I was fortunate to be able to be shown around by friends who live in Bamberg.

There were of course lots of churches, cathedrals, etc, but as usual my eye was drawn to details...

I don't think I have seen anything like the murals on the outside of the Old Town Hall.

Built in the middle of the river, the 14th Century Old Town Hall is reached via two bridges. This is probably the most well known view of Bamberg.

Like I mentioned, my eye was drawn more to details...... after 3 days of massive churches and cathedrals.....

Soja Local History Museum

Soja is a small town at the western edge of the Kibi Plain in southern Okayama. The local history museum is housed in the only remaining Meiji Period western-style building left in the town.

Like virtually every other local history museum in Japan they have an exhibit of clothing made from rice straw.

The bulk of the exhibits however are rather unusual and focus on the local industry, travelling salesmen of medicines.......

Anyone interested in Meiji or Taisho era graphic design would be pleased. These were door-to-door salesmen selling what we might call first aid kits.

They also had a few nice wooden masks.

Before we left the curator gave us some free gifts...... paper balloons "kami fusen". These were the free gifts that the salesmen carried to give away to kids.

He also gave us a detailed map of the area around the Kibi Bike Path that was in English and far more detailed than the map given us by the bike rental shop.

Fudo Myo & Nio: Kiyomizudera

A couple of weeks ago we drove up to visit some old, important, temples. Each of them had a pair of Nio guardian statues, and each temple had strong histories of Shugendo, so each of them had statues of Fudo Myo-O. The first we visited was Kiyomizudera in Yasugi, not to be confused with the more famous temple of the same name in Kyoto.

 

Kiyomizudera in Shimane was founded in 587 more than 200 years before the one in Kyoto. I find myself becoming more and more fascinated by Fudo Myo statues..... partly because of their variety, and partly through their locations connected to ascetic practices of the Shugenja

 

The Niomon (Guardian Gate) was in an unusual location above and behind the main temple, not where one would expect it at the entrance to the temple. I thought it was maybe placed to the NE of the temple to offer protection from that most inauspicious direction, but checking the map said no. Maybe the original entrance was facing in a different direction.

 

Sculpturally they were not particularly sophisticated Nio statues, but the faded paintwork suggests they would have originally been quite impressive.

 

As is often the case, the Niomon was decorated with a huge pair of Waraji (straw sandals)